• The Marseille judiciary has indicted 21 people in two separate cases of drug money laundering.
  • The sums at stake evaluated are colossal and approach 50 million euros.
  • According to the investigators, this laundering was carried out through companies in the construction sector.

A painting by Combas, a sculpture by the artist Cesar, hundreds of bottles of fine wines, leather goods and luxury vehicles: if it has no smell, drug money tastes rather good.

Justice has got its hands on "an alleged network of money laundering involving several individuals, including many managers of companies residing mainly in the Aix region," announced Thursday the prosecutor of the Republic of Marseille.

Forty-five million euros of drug money

Eight persons were charged with laundering drug trafficking, criminal conspiracy, extortion, kidnapping, organized fraud, forgery and use of forgeries, concealed work by an organized gang, misuse of company property and concealment. Seven of them were imprisoned in this exceptional case. The investigators, who carried out from May 22 30 searches at individuals and company headquarters, estimate the sums laundered since 2017 at 45 million euros.

During these searches, numerous works of art, 23 luxury vehicles, large sums of cash, a significant number of jewellery, leather goods and luxury items including 25 valuable watches, as well as several hundred bottles of fine wines and champagne were seized.

The continuation of a previous operation

Concretely, the companies suspected of having allowed this massive laundering cashed "transfers or checks from construction companies in return for the massive delivery of cash from illegal activities, including drug trafficking, less a commission. Regarding the origin of the species, a link was made in particular with an activity of resale of narcotics within a Marseille city, "says the prosecutor.

The assets thus transformed into bank account "were then used for the acquisition, mainly in Germany, of vehicles then exported to Algeria," details the statement Dominique Laurens, the prosecutor of the Republic of Marseille. The cash collected by construction companies allowed them, in particular, to finance the use of concealed work.

This case of historic magnitude follows a previous operation carried out in early April and leading to the indictment of 13 people, suspected of having laundered for 4 million euros over a period of four years. The modus operandi was roughly similar with cash remittances to construction companies, which then issued transfers on the basis of false invoices.

  • Miscellaneous facts Marseille
  • Marseille
  • Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
  • PACA
  • Money laundering
  • Drug
  • Drug trafficking
  • Miscellaneous facts